Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Laud(ree)able?

OK, I'm not going to lie. These are the best shots of these petits fours I could come up with - and I took many.

They're fussy, what can I say? But they aren't as torturous as many of the books and blogs would have you believe. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'll do a much better job next time given what I learned in this go.

Key considerations:

Use enough food colouring. I should have added about 7 drops (red and yellow) but I only used 4.

Really don't let your fat touch your egg whites till you're ready to mix and fold. Stupidly, I used the same bowl to measure the ground almonds as the sugar that stiffed the egg whites. Which means my egg whites were compromised in fluffing from the get go. Of course, I realized it seconds too late. As the egg whites need to sit on your counter for 24 hours, there was no do over for me.

On that account: Make a couple of batches of the aged egg whites, so if you have an issue you aren't fucked.

Practice your piping. That's where I really fell down. I made about 16 different sizes (and not many of them actually circular) of meringue. Hard to make them look professional that way :-) Also, I should have used a larger tip. As it is, I needed to exert too much force on the batter to get the disks onto the baking sheet. Didn't help with their shape, I know.

Read all of Joe's posts on the topic. And really, don't worry about being too delicate. I was not delicate at all and it still wasn't a disaster.

Ganache takes 4 hours to set, and it's probably best to let it do so outside of the fridge, if possible. Keeps it's texture better that way.

I am sincere when I tell you that they are the best tasting macarons I've ever had. The fluff and crisp of the meringue was superb, to my taste, and the ganache (which I made with milk chocolate as it has a higher cocoa butter content - and then butter) was so awesome, I ate the remainder of it with a spoon while watching the Grinch.

Give these a try if you are at all interested - and don't let lack of confidence stop you. They're only cookies after all. Yummy ones.

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